It’s the start of a new era this October in Vancity, with the first season in nearly twenty where they’re not carried up front by the duo of Daniel and Henrik Sedin. Vancouver hasn’t been in playoff contention for a few seasons now, and it’s hard to really find any realistic projection where they come close to sniffing the postseason again anytime soon.

Vancouver had one of the more confusing offseasons in recent memory, signing a pair of contracts that almost universally didn’t seem to make sense for the direction of. Jay Beagle, Antoine Roussel would be fine depth pieces, but the length and value of their contracts (identical $3 million AAV x 4 years) doesn’t make much sense when they’d be better off adding younger talent to the team in that timeframe. They also pulled in Tim Schaller from Boston, who at $1.9 million per annum isn’t as much of a cap issue, but also mostly a wash as his value to the team overall.

Beyond the loss of the Sedins, former team President Trevor Linden’s departure suggests of a possible rift in management between him and GM Jim Benning. Rumours have circled that Benning is looking at trying to ice a competitive team, whereas Linden may have pushed more for a lengthier rebuild.

Loui Eriksson remains the team’s highest paid forward, which pretty much tells you about the quality of their forward group as a whole. Bo Horvat looks like the natural successor to take the team’s captaincy. One of the league’s better 2Cs, Horvat will remain the team’s best player in that position, entering the season at least. Their defensive group is nothing to write home about, with just one player, Erik Gubdranson, signed for more than the next two seasons. We’ll likely see at least one of Michael Del Zotto, Chris Tanev or Alex Edler on the move this season.

However, things aren’t all doom and gloom, despite the fact that this season’s on-ice product is looking like it could be one of the league’s worst. The Canucks carry one of the league’s best prospect pools, with 2017 fifth overall pick Elias Pettersson looking like a early Calder Trophy favourite. 2018 first-rounder Quinn Hughes returns to Michigan, but likely only for a single other season. Further recent draft picks Olli Juolevi and Adam Gaudette could both make the team out of training camp. Add in rookie sensation Brock Boeser and the Canucks have one of the better groups of young talent in the league.

In net, Jacob Markstrom and Anders Nilsson play the 2A and 2B tandem, which is overall a positive for a team that’s tanking. Prospect Thatcher Demko is really the only thing that is keeping their future in goal up. His .922 save percentage in the AHL last season suggests he might be making the jump to the NHL soon, but we’ll hold reservations until we actually see him get into more than just a single game.

The Canucks have put themselves in a position where they’ll likely be one of the league’s worst teams, anchored by recent history and marginal offseason moves coupled with the loss of two franchise icons. Don’t expect much out of British Columbia this season, but at least Elias, Bo and Brock will score a few goals to keep things exciting.

After an eventful and at times confusing offseason, the Carolina Hurricanes got off to a scorching start to the 2018-19 season. In their first five games, the Canes went 4-0-1 while outscoring the opposition 22-15 in all situations and 16-9 at 5v5. They were also controlling 62.4% of the unblocked shot attempts at 5v5 during…